It wastes resources, money, and shipping companies’ resources. It generates extra trash and annoys customers. What is it? Companies’ insistence on employing members of the Stupid Shipping Gang to send packages!

Reader Cicadymn’s employer received this box from Dell. What was inside? A single-page letter, protected from wear and tear with an air cushion.

For whatever reason, someone in Dell’s shipping department not only packed a single page letter into a box, but also protected it with a bag of air.

Next time we hope they just send a letter.

Charles received a bottle of sunscreen in an outsized box, and from an ironic source:

The image doesn’t really do it justice — a 10oz bottle of sunscreen (mistakenly sent, I might add), on its own, in a massive pile of bubble wrap in a medium-to-large box — but the most amusing/ horrifying part is that it is sent by the purportedly environmentally-happy site, MotherNature.com.

Whit’s Craftsman screwdrivers arrived from Sears rattling around in this huge box. “No additional packaging or materials were included; it was just the screwdrivers and invoice in this cavernous box!” he notes.

Amazon is one of the Stupid Shipping Gang’s leaders, and didn’t disappoint in recent months. phpdrm ordered a package of pens, and received them in this box:

Amazon now owns Zappos, and perhaps has been spreading their shipping ethos. Sam writes:

I ordered a wallet from Zappos a week ago. I get home to find a pretty big package came in the mail. (to be exact: 9″ x 13.5″ x 5.5″). Inside, my wallet (3.75″ x 4.75″ x 1.5″). Really guys, was that necessary?

Steph received a necklace from Amazon, and sent the box-in-a-cavernous-box she received to us using the Consumerist Tipster App: